GIS Éire conference

Ireland and Human Rights: Idealism and pragmatism, discourse and realities

Toulouse   18-19 November 2022

Organised by:

Sara Brennan (UT1), Marie-Violaine Louvet (UT2J), Bairbre Ní Chiosáin (UT1), Charlotte Rault (UT1)

Call for papers

When re-elected as President of the Republic of Ireland in November 2018, Michael D Higgins declared in his inaugural speech: “Since we first joined the League of Nations – a centenary we will soon mark – and throughout our time in the United Nations, Ireland has won international respect through our work on peace-building, from disarmament to our leadership in addressing consequences of colonisation and the priority we have placed on humanitarian and human rights concerns.” (1) This image of defender of human rights has been a significant part of Ireland’s self-representation abroad.

The 2018 government report Global Ireland: Ireland’s Global Footprint for 2025 establishes targets to promote Ireland’s international image. As well as its goals of further enhancing its diplomatic position on the international stage, developing digital networks, and promoting Irish tourism and culture, the government defines two main axes with objectives to be achieved by 2025: to advance the cause of peace, the respect of human rights, equality and justice, on the one hand, and to contribute to the global fight against poverty and hunger and to promote sustainable development, on the other. (2)

Ireland’s commitment to human rights is consistent with the ideals of the republican tradition as outlined in the 1937 Constitution, which makes reference to fundamental rights in Articles 40 to 45. This Constitution, drafted over a decade before the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the European Convention on Human Rights, was in many ways ahead of its time, being the first to include the notion of the dignity of the human person, but also to declare family and education as legally binding. (3)

Ireland is undeniably committed to the protection of human rights. The aim of this conference is to analyse Ireland’s role in promoting human rights on a national and international scale, but also to measure the distance between discourse and reality

This conference will focus first of all on Ireland’s participation in international institutions (League of Nations, European Council, European Court of Human Rights, European Union, United Nations), but also on the work of Irish NGOs, in order to observe the extent to which the country’s postcolonial identity, its neutrality and its commitment to development assistance have allowed for a different perspective within these institutions. One may question the human rights policy models that have inspired the Irish, but also the existence of an “Irish-specific” model that the Minister of Foreign Affairs termed “Ireland’s values and signature foreign policies”. This conference aims to juxtapose theory and practice and to analyse how these ideals have been contested, defended and put into practice on a national level in recent history. One may look at the discourse around human rights and its emergence as a national preoccupation, and how awareness of questions of human rights influences citizenship education and how an Irish-specific approach (should one exist) can serve as a model framework in other contexts. One example may be found in the French interest in the Irish Citizens’ Assembly in light of the yellow-vest movement. Furthermore, a non-exhaustive list of topics such as governmental social policies and their shortcomings, the conditions of immigrants and asylum seekers in direct provision centres, the rights of women and minorities, the work of the Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission and the Irish Council for Civil Liberties may be critically analysed from diachronic and synchronic perspectives, taking into consideration various challenges, particularly those presented by Brexit.

These may include the possibility of Irish unification. We are also expecting papers addressing human rights issues on both sides of the border, highlighting elements of convergence and divergence between the two parts of the island, and considering the conditions under which a ‘united Ireland’ might be possible from a human rights perspective, be it in terms of minority-majority power relations, the creation of new institutions, or the unity of a discourse on human rights.

 GIS.HRConference2022@gmail.com 

NOTES

(1) Irish Times, 13 Nov 2018.

(2) “International development: Advance Ireland’s values and signature foreign policies, including the promotion of peace, disarmament, human rights, greater equality, and justice, developing our strategic interest in a safer, more peaceful, more equal, more prosperous world; and providing the basis for a successful campaign for election to the UN Security Council; contribute to the global fight against poverty and hunger, and the promotion of equality and justice and sustainable development, amplified in line with a well-managed expansion in our aid programme, working towards 0.7% of GNI by 2030” DFA, Global Ireland Ireland’s Global Footprint for 2025.

(3) Justice Susan Denham, ‘Some thoughts on the Constitution of Ireland at 75’ https://cdn.thejournal.ie/media/2012/06/20120629cj-speech.pdf